HD DVD Sales Tumble After Warners Defection

Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:27AM EST

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The first HD DVD sales figures since Warner Brothers jumped ship to Blu-ray are starting to trickle in, and the news is bleak: both HD DVD disc and player sales have plummeted since Warners' surprise pre-CES announcement.

Engadget HD has the numbers from Nielsen VideoScan, which details disc sales for both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The latest word, for the week ending January 15: Blu-ray snagged a whopping 85 percent of disc sales, compared to just 15 percent for HD DVD, with no HD DVD titles at all in the top-10 list. Now, the numbers represent only one week's sales, and as Engadget HD points out, HD DVD didn't happen to have any big titles coming out that week; still, given that the historical Blu-ray/HD DVD split has been more like 60 to 40 percent, that's a sharp drop.

Meanwhile, NPD Group (via High-Def Digest) has sales numbers on the hardware side: for the week ending January 12, Blu-ray players represented an overwhelming 92 percent of all HD decks sold, compared to less than 8 percent for HD DVD. Compare that to the previous week, when Blu-ray and HD DVD player sales chalked up a 50-50 split. Ouch. That said, Toshiba announced an HD DVD player fire sale on January 13, so we'll have to see if that kicks up next week's sales a notch.

Again, we're just talking one week of figures here, but the numbers pretty much speak for themselves. Looks like the format war may be drawing to a close, rapidly.

Related:
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending January 13th, 2008 [Engadget HD]
Blu-ray Commands 93 Percent of Weekly Hardware Sales Post-Warner Announcement [High-Def Digest]

Comments on HD DVD Sales Tumble After Warners Defection

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  • 46 Posted by trigger968 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    prince_endymion15, you did not read my post did you, you just skimmed. My point is don't buy either, keep your existing library of DVD's and upconvert with OPPO, or dual play from Samsung. However, in the long run DVD will go the way of CD-ROM and will disappear. Everything will go to digital download similar to the iPod, if you don't think so talk to me in a couple years and I will accept your apology for being so near sighted. My money is in the future.........long term and you are out to lunch!

  • 47 Posted by soulman0570 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    Can I just add something to aznstlylex83's point regarding XBOX and HD-DVD. Microsoft’s sales of the Xbox HD DVD add on are into six figures in the UK, and every one of those has been bought specifically to play HD DVDs – unlike the PS3. Then you add on sales of Toshiba stand alones to that and I bet you’ve got far more dedicated HD DVD players than PS3s, some of which are maybe going to be used for Blu Ray. Personally I'd support Blu-Ray if it worked and you didn’t have to buy another machine within a year of your first to play a disc because they’d changed the specification of the format. Remember Laserdisc and even DVD (or CD or VHS tape for that matter) all played in every player ever made no matter how early or late one or the other was manufactured. The formats were finished, tested and working fully before they were released.

  • 48 Posted by seig5052 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    To soulman0570. I agree that had XBOX had hd-dvd out of the box we might be seeing a different story. At the same time you must remember that the cost of an xbox would jump, maybe even higher than ps3 at launch, and with the addition of the drive the ps3 may have made it to the market before the xbox 360. That is the main reason xbox 360 has the lead over the ps3 in the console war is because they hit the market first and by the time ps3 came out they already had a pretty good library and the price had fallen. It would make a difference but not the drastic end all be all that would kill blu-ray. And all blu-ray movies will play on the older players in full 1080p just you won't be able to access all of the features. This is the point that hd dvd fans and misinformed individuals leave out of their posts. Also hd dvd was not 1080p out of the gate so any truly early adopter has had to pick up a new hd dvd player so blu-ray is not the consumer screwer that everyone makes them out to be. By the way economics will drive prices for blu-ray software and hardware down because they are still competing against a far greater giant in the form of DVD. Actually this war will be far more helpful to prices than the current war because DVD cost production is already so low. Blu-ray will have to get within a reasonable range of this to get some of those on the fence adopters to jump to their side.

  • 49 Posted by seig5052 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    And now I want to discuss the whole digital content argument. Realistically we are at least five years from seeing HD content available digitally that makes sense and works for the consumer. For standard def content it may work just fine. But people wanting to see a 1080p movie in all its audio/visual glory will have to download at least 20+ gb of data. How long and will that take? I'd be willing to go to the store and pay $25-$30 for a blu-ray movie I can watch now than pay $20-$25 for an HD digital copy off of whatever online site and have to wait who knows how long for it to download. Not to mention this will happen while others are trying to do the same thing on the same network. Its a great idea but we're not equipped to make that mainstream anytime soon. I like blu-ray but hd dvd had its high points. But now even those have become obselete with 1.1 and 2.0 on the way. So basically hd dvd's only argument now is cost and that will change too. Remember, like the xbox 360, hd dvd hit the market first so its only economics that they cost less right now. And even with this advantage they are losing. So on that note I bid you all goodbye.

  • 50 Posted by blp2778 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    Rumor is, that to combat the HDDVD's fire sale, and help sky rocket PS3 sales, there is going to be a new PS3 model for 299. Sounds solid as Sony announced that they managed to cut production costs in half, and to help fight cheap HDDVD players

  • 51 Posted by snoopyg91@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm part of the many that is very confussed about blu-ray and hd dvd. But this report does pretty much helps point the arrow towards a type of player.

  • 52 Posted by tim_mckeand on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have a blu ray player, but I think many more titles need to come out before a majority of people will get one, and of course a price drop.

  • 53 Posted by tim_mckeand on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    also I work in an electronics retailer and many people accidentally buy either HD or Blu Ray DISCS not paying attention to what they are.......... so that kinda inflates it a little bit. My mom is guilty of this too ;-)

  • 54 Posted by soulman0570 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    With regard to seig5052 point and I quote "And all blu-ray movies will play on the older players in full 1080p just you won't be able to access all of the features" will this be pointed out to the consumer when he buys one these machines from an electrical retailer.

  • 55 Posted by g_llanes on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:15PM EDT Report Abuse

    Jeez, what Im I gonna do with the HD-DVD of the Burne Supremacy I bought last year for mistake??? I Havent see it yet because I Have a BD player......Best Buy should put those discs in a corner !!

  • 56 Posted by garagepaul on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    I bought a HP media center last year, and it happened to be equipt with a HD DVD player. They included a HD DVD copy of the Bourne Supremecy with it. Guess what, IT WONT PLAY because of some stupid anti pirate crap that requires a special hi-def monitor that wasn't out at the time. So I am sticking with regular DVD's for my low-def eyes.

  • 57 Posted by brian_s_gill on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    Pretty soon it'll be a flash drive - high resolution no static no moving part ultimate player system for only $599 that can sit by our Betamax, VHS, Disc, Blueray DVD players.. Isnt technology grand.. haha. Maybe it IS cheaper to go see the saturday show for $8.

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